Sports ramblings…with a Yankees bias!

Results tagged ‘ Kris Allen ’

The Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-5, on Saturday to extend their AL East to 1 ½ games over the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays (the Red Sox lost to the Jays, 5-3).

As of 5/30/09…

AL East

W

L

Pct

GB

Home

Road

Last 10

Streak

Yankees

29

20

.592

—

14-9

15-11

7-3

Won 3

Red Sox

28

22

.560

1.5

17-6

11-16

4-6

Lost 2

Blue Jays

29

23

.558

1.5

18-6

11-17

2-8

Won 2

Rays

25

27

.481

5.5

13-10

12-17

5-5

Won 2

Orioles

23

27

.460

6.5

16-12

7-15

7-3

Lost 1

The Yankees have played much better since I saw them personally in Baltimore, so maybe I am responsible for the turnaround!Okay, that’s probably not it.The Yankees have been a different team since Alex Rodriguez returned to the team.Mark Teixeira started to hit like fans in Texas, Atlanta, and Anaheim had become accustomed to, and the pitching has been great. The defense, which has been a liability in recent years, has been excellent.Saturday’s game was the Yankees’ 16th consecutive game without an error.If they avoid any errors on Sunday, they’ll match the major league mark set by the Boston Red Sox in 2006.

Against the Indians, CC Sabathia breezed through the first few innings, not allowing a hit until the 5th inning.The Indians scored two runs in the 5th, thanks to a few hits and RBI singles, but the Yankees had built up a 7-2 lead by that time.

Dejak/AP

Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher hit solo home runs in the second inning.The Yanks added five runs in the 4th inning, primarily on two-run singles by Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano.Johnny Damon also had a run scoring single in the inning.In the 6th, Damon picked up another RBI on a groundout to first which brought home Brett Gardner.

AP

Sabathia gave up a home run to Grady Sizemore in the 6th, but you knew that Grady would be heard from sooner or later in this series (even with his sore elbow).The guy is definitely a warrior…

Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer

The Yankees scored a couple of runs in the 9th on a run-scoring single by Cano, and a double by Hideki Matsui that scored Cano.

David Robertson pitched a perfect 8th inning, facing just three batters.However, Jose Veras came out for the 9th and showed that he is, well, Jose Veras.Despite the 10-3 lead, Veras gave up a homer to the first batter he faced (Shin-Soo Choo).He hit the next batter, Mark DeRosa, to put a man on base.DeRosa moved to second on a groundout, and then scored on Ben Francisco’s double.All of sudden, I started to get flashbacks of the Indians’ 7-run 9th inning to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 11-10 on May 25th.Fortunately, Veras retired the next two batters to end the game.Joe Girardi showed much more faith in Veras than I ever would have, but the end result was a Yankees win and adding a game to the AL East lead so all is good…

After the game, Indian manager Eric Wedge, when asked about Sabathia, responded, “He was very good tonight.Better than he was when we saw him in New York [April 16th]”.Hey Julia, that applies to the entire Yankees team!See you on June 9th!The Red Sox may be a team built for Fenway Park, but the Yankees now boast the best road record in the American League.

Derek Jeter now has 1,497 runs scored for his career.There are only three active major players with 1,500 runs (Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, and Ken Griffey, Jr.).With three more runs, he’ll join a very exclusive club of players who scored 1,500 runs as Yankees (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Mantle).

MPI/Getty Images

I was surprised to see Jorge Posada catch on Saturday, given he had played on Friday night.I expected to see Francisco Cervelli play, with Posada perhaps at DH.Nevertheless, it sounds like Posada will take a seat in Sunday’s game when Phil Hughes faces the American Idle…

Nope, not that guy!This one…

The Plain Dealer

Pavano has pitched fairly well for the Indians, and has already appeared in 10 games for them (as opposed to 26 in four years with the Yankees).He has won five of his six starts this month, and has defeated AL East heavyweights Boston and Tampa. Let’s hope his May ends on a down note…

It was a tough night for Cleveland as the Cavaliers were easily eliminated in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in Orlando by the Magic.King LeBron will have to wait at least another year for a trip to the finals.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.